In the semiautobiographical depiction of his life when he arrived in the United States during the 1920s Carlos Bulosan wrote, "In many ways it was a crime to be a Filipino in California,” probably because at the time Filipinos in Hawaii and throughout the cities of California were threatening agricultural land owners and government and local officials. Filipino workers were uniting and threatening strikes for better wages, better living conditions, and a stop to violence and racial discrimination against Filipinos and other working class.
In 1898 although the United States took possession of the Philippines the economic conditions in the Philippines remained bleak especially for the farm laborers. Over 100,000 Filipino immigrants made their way to the states looking for a better life. In the 1920s many immigrants found work on sugar plantations in Hawaii and up and down the coast of California in agricultural fields and canneries and as domestic servants. However, after arriving in the states many Filipinos encountered economic oppression, homelessness, deplorable working conditions, intense racial discrimination, and violence. Subsequently, the economic crisis of the
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His books and poems described the hardships and racism he and his fellow Filipinos encountered in the U.S. He wrote about the violence and having to travel from town to town because groups of angry citizens hunted down and beat Filipinos and forced them out of towns across California. Despite the continued harassment and violence that claimed many Filipinos lives, there were many others that succeeded in organizing much of the work force and improving working conditions for not only Filipinos but for Mexicans and other ethnic groups of unskilled